• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Advertise
  • About Craft Brewing Business

Craft Brewing Business

Professional Insight, Unfiltered

Craft Brewing Business Craft Brewing Business
  • News
  • Business & Marketing
  • Packaging & Distribution
  • Equipment & Systems
  • Ingredients & Supplies
  • Webinars & White Papers
  • News
  • Business & Marketing
  • Ingredients & Supplies
  • Packaging & Distribution
  • Equipment
  • Webinars & White Papers
  • COVID-19

Oh look, Michigan has another brewery. Here’s why you should care

July 18, 2016Cody Fague and Isaac Arthur

Oh look, Michigan has another brewery. Here’s why you should care.

This article was first published on CODO Design’s blog. Head over there to see more behind the scenes images for North Pier and glimpses into many more craft beer branding projects.

Man, Michigan has a lot of beer. As of early 2016, Michigan is home to 205 distinct craft breweries, and that’s tough for me to wrap my head around. It seems that here in Indiana, we’ve only recently crested to 100. For Michigan, those 205 breweries represent almost 800,000 bbls of craft beer produced annually. That’s over three gallons PER ADULT — or, my personal consumption over a given weekend. Jokes aside, beer is a really big deal in the state. Maybe there’s something in the water. Beer in the water? Need to investigate.

Even taking into account the old guard craft breweries of the east coast and the alluringly hip beer scene of the western United States, Michigan is a crown jewel of beer, both nationally and for the Midwest/Great Lakes region. When I first got into the stuff, you couldn’t go out to eat without someone ordering a bottle or two of Bell’s Two Hearted. And Founder’s Breakfast Stout is a regular in the rotation for many here in central Indiana. Newer offerings like Greenbush Brewing Co. in Sawyer, Mich., are established as one-stop, must-see destinations for tourists and aficionados alike. Of the states that border our own, Michigan is the undisputed heavyweight champion of craft beer. This fact was not lost on us when we were hired to brand a new brewery in Benton Harbor, Mich.

Jay Fettig, from neighboring St. Joseph, is an avid traveler and closet death metal fan (though you wouldn’t suspect it given his mild, observant demeanor). Along with friends and family, Jay decided that Michigan needed another brewery. Jay and Co. (including head brewer Steve Distasio, by way of Rogue Ales in Oregon) had the ambition to create a family-friendly, Belgian-focused destination brewery in their home town, adjacent to a PGA golf course and mere minutes from the beautiful shores of Lake Michigan. So, that’s what they did. Enter North Pier Brewing Co.

CODO North Pier 01

CODO North Pier 02

Driving up to Benton Harbor from Indianapolis is a little like time travel. You pass small, struggling towns without two gas stations to rub together. You skirt the Notre Dame campus in South Bend. You cross the Indiana/Michigan border and arrive in a sprawling burg that’s seen its share of hard times, evidenced by weathered little out-buildings and decades-old advertising signage. Benton Harbor has flashes of charm: mortar work, stone and tile, industrial architecture — all the stuff that interior designers love to fetishize and reproduce. Here and there are storefront properties that are white-boxed and ready to be inhabited. The duality of decay and charm makes sense: Benton Harbor was once a grand tourist destination, drawing visitors from all over the Midwest to enjoy the local amenities. If you visit long enough today, residents will reference the town’s history of social strife in hushed, serious tones. At first glance, the community reads as rugged, maybe a little dodgy in places, but defiant. Resilient.

(Oh, and celebrated ’90s comedian Sinbad was born in Benton Harbor. Feel free to don your loudest silk button-up and affix your most stunning dangly earring before you finish reading this. You know, to get in the mood. Go on. We’ll wait.)

Just minutes from downtown, we met Jay and his co-conspirators to tour the building that was to become North Pier Brewing. At that time, it was a dusty old auto garage with a tacky office frankensteined onto the side. Very little renovation was done at this point, so it took some imagination to discern the true potential of the space. However, we’ve toured enough pre-development properties to recognize it immediately. Beyond the property, idyllic suburban single-family developments flank an internationally recognized golf course. Go just a bit further and you arrive at Jean Klock Park and the shore of Lake Michigan. It was still too cold to get our toes wet, but the low rhythm of water lapping sodden sand provided a serene, new-agey pause to our day trip. Here we observed the St. Joseph North Pier Lighthouse, which lends North Pier Brewing its name, and serves as something of a symbol for the area.

More CODO: Learn to shape your brewery’s brand voice and communicate your values with words.

We grabbed lunch directly across the street from the soon-to-be North Pier Brewing, at a little dive bar called North Shore Inn. Once ensconced in North Shore’s dim confines, your eyes wander across stools occupied by sassy middle-aged regulars. Your gaze settles upon a full-color painted mural of a Spanish bullfighting arena on the wall. “Why does the bull on the mural sport such lovingly-crafted plaster testicles?” you wonder privately, stomach growling. You scan the menu — a no-frills lineup of burgers and sides. Wait, so why do the coasters say “Authentic Mexican Food?” See, on the weekends, North Shore Inn converts to a Mexican joint. Everyone knows that. Never mind the fact that Spanish bullfighting has very little to do with Mexican cuisine; we don’t care about that here. You won’t care either, when the quintessential bar burger (the kind that leaves you in a blissful grease coma) is presented in front of you, hot, juicy and flavorful, alongside a basket of fresh pork cracklins that sizzle and contort on the surface of your tongue. Perfection. Make no mistake: This joint gets the coveted CODO Seal of Approval®.

We hold casual meetings at venues like these to make sure we’re on the same page as our clients. Over more than one beer, Jay outlined his desire to reference the actual North Pier Lighthouse somewhere, somehow in the logo itself. After all, there is a romantic sense of guidance associated with the image of a lighthouse. At the same time, he recognized that this imagery might be cliché: crappy clip-art lighthouses are often used in logos for churches, financial services and medical offices. Yuck. Ultimately, in the final identity, we chose to eliminate the lighthouse entirely and focus on the light itself. Paired with rugged, hand-rendered industrial typography, those harsh angles and beaming rays begin to tell a story of a community that exudes an elusive charm, in spite of a history of hard times. That may seem heady, but I implore you: visit Benton Harbor and tell me I’m wrong.

CODO North Pier 03 CODO North Pier 04 CODO North Pier 05

We’ve met a lot of folks who have the intention to open a brewery, and you can generally sort ‘em into a few different categories. There are the “money guys,” who see the impressive growth of craft beer purely as a business opportunity. With these types, the actual craft of brewing is often an afterthought. Alternatively, there are the spartan, boot-strapped brewers with a headstrong DIY outlook, who dream of doing what they love for a living, but as a result, often neglect the finer touches that comprise a pleasant customer brand experience. And then, there are people who love to consume craft beer, love the culture, love the variety and the experience of trying styles both familiar and experimental. These people love to travel all over the world and absorb all the nuances and foibles of craft beer culture. I would definitely put Jay & Co. in the latter category.

Why? Find out on the next page after this shameless attempt to get another click. There’s also a bunch of cool photos and stuff. Thanks for indulging us.

Pages: Page 1 Page 2
4 steps to understanding the filtration process in craft beer
Backwoods Brewing to open a 19-acre resort called Party Acres in the Columbia River gorge this May
Years in planning: Flix Brewhouse will open a nine-screen luxury theater and brewery in Mansfield, Texas, this fall
insurance-risk-exposure
7 crazy insurance claims ─ could your brewery fall victim?

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. VDBCapital says

    July 22, 2016 at 7:01 am

    A great story about another new Michigan brewery: https://t.co/N6p1UIy7Bj

    Log in to Reply
  2. beerbrewinghome says

    July 21, 2016 at 4:11 pm

    Oh look, Michigan has another brewery. Here’s why you should care https://t.co/jaSXkalAh4

    Log in to Reply
  3. Beargrylls Sum says

    July 19, 2016 at 5:36 am

    Beargrylls Sum liked this on Facebook.

    Log in to Reply
  4. Jerry Elliott says

    July 19, 2016 at 5:36 am

    Jerry Elliott liked this on Facebook.

    Log in to Reply
  5. Scott Tucker says

    July 19, 2016 at 5:36 am

    Scott Tucker liked this on Facebook.

    Log in to Reply
  6. Charlie Reeves says

    July 18, 2016 at 9:36 pm

    Charlie Reeves liked this on Facebook.

    Log in to Reply
  7. KCHopTalk says

    July 18, 2016 at 5:45 pm

    Oh look, Michigan has another brewery. Here’s why you should care https://t.co/GTvAsz52ks

    Log in to Reply
  8. Kathy Bailey says

    July 18, 2016 at 5:21 pm

    Kathy Bailey liked this on Facebook.

    Log in to Reply
  9. Travis Archey says

    July 18, 2016 at 5:21 pm

    Travis Archey liked this on Facebook.

    Log in to Reply
  10. northpierbrew says

    July 18, 2016 at 3:41 pm

    RT @CraftBrewingBiz: Oh look, Michigan has another brewery. Here’s why you should care. @CODODesign @northpierbrew https://t.co/AdDw5Z1WVi

    Log in to Reply
  11. crsimp01 says

    July 18, 2016 at 3:32 pm

    CODO Design Brands North Pier Brewing Co. https://t.co/GqiDGLAvow via @craftbrewingbiz

    Log in to Reply
  12. Nicole Parrott Dellaposta says

    July 18, 2016 at 3:07 pm

    Nicole Parrott Dellaposta liked this on Facebook.

    Log in to Reply
  13. LVRGLLC says

    July 18, 2016 at 2:21 pm

    #CraftBeer #CraftBrewing #Beer #BeerBiz Oh look, Michigan has another brewery. Here’s why you should care https://t.co/SzDFapH7WS

    Log in to Reply
  14. Jay Fettig says

    July 18, 2016 at 2:06 pm

    Jay Fettig liked this on Facebook.

    Log in to Reply
  15. Lee David says

    July 18, 2016 at 1:21 pm

    Lee David liked this on Facebook.

    Log in to Reply
  16. Justin Barton says

    July 18, 2016 at 1:21 pm

    Justin Barton liked this on Facebook.

    Log in to Reply
  17. Isaac Arthur says

    July 18, 2016 at 12:51 pm

    Isaac Arthur liked this on Facebook.

    Log in to Reply
  18. CODODesign says

    July 18, 2016 at 12:39 pm

    RT @CraftBrewingBiz: Oh look, Michigan has another brewery. Here’s why you should care. @CODODesign @northpierbrew https://t.co/AdDw5Z1WVi

    Log in to Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Primary Sidebar

Latest News

  • State of California Craft Beer: Covid recovery challenged by competition, consolidation
  • MicroStar Logistics launches Network Services Division to manage reusable plastic pallets for the beer Industry
  • Analyst speculates on Heineken acquiring Boston Beer, stock jumps
  • United States Bartenders’ Guild now has access to WOTVS Hospitality Assistance Program

Sign up for our newsletter

unsubscribe from list

Most Popular Today

Recent Features

  • CCBA California Craft Beer SummitState of California Craft Beer: Covid recovery challenged by competition, consolidation
    March 23, 2023
  • Koga-brothers-karben4Karben4 Brewing to relaunch Ale Asylum brand
    March 20, 2023
  • 4 steps to understanding the filtration process in craft beer
    March 20, 2023
  • newbelgium_2023_wildnectar-shopping-basket_family_IMG_2Beyond beer: Examples of craft breweries exploring canned cocktails
    March 16, 2023
  • brooklyn 35 featureBrooklyn Lager turns 35 and more beers to know this week
    March 14, 2023
  • Backwoods Brewing to open a 19-acre resort called Party Acres in the Columbia River gorge this May
    March 13, 2023

Footer

  • Email Newsletter Sign Up
  • About Craft Brewing Business
  • Contact Us
  • Advertise on Craft Brewing Business
  • Media Kit Download
  • Privacy and Terms

© 2023 · CBB Media LLC